news & events

The Stone House Center for Public Humanities is looking for student mentors for our Humanities Ladder program.

The Humanities Ladder provides college-level humanities education to high school students faced with socioeconomic difficulties through weekly team-taught sessions. As a student mentor, you will work with a Slippery Rock University professor by assisting students at Aliquippa High School OR Union Area High School with once-a-week classroom activities. The goals of the Humanities Ladder Program are to:

Provide engaging opportunities for high school students to practice reflective critical thinking in disciplines like aesthetics, philosophy, anthropology, history, and more.

Demystify college for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students who might not otherwise attend university.

Provide SRU students with opportunities for integrated learning and community engagement.

As a student mentor, you will gain valuable leadership skills and receive a stipend for ten weeks of service. Time commitment is approximately 3-4 hours one day a week.

If you are interested in being a mentor, please send your resume along with your availability for the fall 2017 semester to publichumanities@sru.edu.

Shout Out for the Humanities

Our first ever Shout Out for the Humanities Contest was held on March 1st at the Smith Student Center. Seventeen entries from SRU students were displayed and judged by Karen Pierce, Kevin Lukacs, and Judy Silva. Submissions were creative and thoughtful, and included video entries, essays, artwork, posters, and poems from History, Philosophy, Art, English, and Physics majors. Faculty with the most entrants included Dr. Andrew Winters, Dr. Barbara Westman, and Dr. Aksel Casson.​The contest winners were: First place, senior Adam Riddle; second place, junior Joseph Szalinski; and third place, senior Casey Squires.

We would like to thank our excellent judges as well as Danette DiMarco, Tim Oldakowski, Andrew Winters, Aaron Cowan, Lia Paradis, Paula Rieder, Barbara Westman, Arlene Ford, and Aksel Casson, the faculty who assisted with the workshop and who acted as advisors to our contestants.

We would also like to thank our sponsors, Wise Physical Therapy and the Office of Transformational Programs.

Humanities Ladder

Last semester marked the first session of the Humanities Ladder, a project to provide humanities-based enrichment to underserved students local high schools. In the fall, Dr. Jason Hilton and Dr. Tim Oldakowski taught at Aliquippa High School, teaching students modes of critical thinking. Students openly participated, asking questions and working out problems in ways that, as one student stated, “helped me to think differently.” Thank you both for a successful first semester!​This semester’s Humanities Ladder faculty are Dr. Lia Paradis and Dr. Aksel Casson. For those interested in teaching next year at Aliquippa or Union High School, please contact Laura Coulter at laura.coulter@sru.edu.

Upcoming Events

Ethics BowlSaturday April 23, 9 am to 12 pmThe Stone House CPH is co-sponsoring the 2016 SRU Ethics Bowl, an event in which teams of 3-5 students engage in friendly, competitive debate over a variety of contemporary moral issues. We are currently seeking faculty to volunteer as judges, moderators and mentors for this event. Judges and moderators will be needed on the day of the event (April 23), while mentors should meet with their teams in the weeks leading up the event. Contact andrew.colvin@sru.edu or andrew.winters@sru.edu for more information.

Homebrewed History: “Beer and Medieval Europe”Saturday, April 2 from 2 to 4 pm, Old Stone HouseThe latest installment of the Homebrewed History educational series will focus on medieval European brewing history and recipes. Guests will be able to sample two brews based on authentic medieval recipes: and English ale and a Belgian trippel. Dr. Paula Rieder will offer a presentation on the evolutionof brewing from domestic, women’s work to a male-dominated enterprise during the late medieval period. Tickets for the event are $25, and can be bought online at this link.

Batik exhibit: “Here and There”Saturday April 9 and Saturday April 16 from 2 to 4 pm, Old Stone HouseOld Stone House presents “Here and There,” a batik exhibit featuring works by students from SRU and Gdansk, Poland. Dr. Barbara Westman, professor of Art, assembled the pieces for the exhibition which will include hands-on activities mimicking the wax-resist technique used in making batik designs. School-aged children are encouraged to try the activities. Admission is free.